


The Beast Within 15/?

by iantosgal (orphan_account)



Series: The Beast Within [15]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-05 05:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/iantosgal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack is back from his time with the Doctor and his team are keeping something from him, but what? Set after KKBB.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beast Within 15/?

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a story I posted a couple of years back on my LJ. My Torchwood muse buggered off and the story died. A couple of days ago, I found it, re-read it and the muse was reawakened!! So I've written a couple more chapters and just wanted to repost this over here on my new profile! So sorry for the spam of chapters, if anyone remembers it from LJ then I'm sorry for the long wait and for anyone that reads, I hope you enjoy it!!!

“I can’t believe it.”

“I know.”

“There’s another wolf.”

“I know.”

“This is huge.”

“I know.”

Owen turned from the screen showing the still frame from the CCTV and looked at his friend.

“Are you ok?”

Ianto made a pained expression.

“I don’t know. On the one hand I’m pleased it wasn’t me, but on the other there’s someone else going through all the shit I’ve been through and they’re doing it all alone. It must be terrifying and not being able to control it? Who knows how many people it’s hurt. Just because only one incident has been reported, doesn’t mean anything. There are plenty of missing people in Cardiff. What if whoever this wolf is, killed some of them?”

Ianto finally turned to look at Owen and then round at the rest of the team. Gwen was still looking at the screen and Ianto knew what she was thinking.

Whoever this new wolf is, it must have been turned around the same time as Ianto had been. Before they could stop the alien.

She felt guilty.

“We couldn’t have known,” Ianto said quietly and she looked at him, false smile on her face.

“I know. Still hard though.”

“Tell me about it.”

*~*~*~*

Ianto stayed up all night, sifting through papers and police reports from around the time he was bitten, trying to see if there was something they had missed.

When Gwen came into the Hub the next morning, the bags under her eyes told Ianto she had been doing the same.

He spoke to Jack and got him to send her home under strict orders not to come back until she’d had at least six hours sleep. She wasn’t happy but left under Ianto’s glare.

There were a few rift alerts that day but nothing major and Ianto was thankful. Everyone was a little preoccupied with the realisation that there was another wolf on the scene and he wasn’t sure they would have been focused enough to tackle anything big.

Gwen came back after five and a half hours and that would have to do because she flat out refused to go home again. As the day was quiet she spent most of her time pouring over reports again, looking for anything, anything at all that could help her find whoever the other wolf was. It was like an obsession. She’d let them down and she needed to fix it.

After about two hours, Ianto came and pulled her bodily to her feet and dragged her, protesting, to the med bay.

“You’ve been staring at that screen for too long.”

“So your taking me on a trip to see Owen? How thoughtful,” Gwen said with a tired smile.

“I’m going to see him anyway, it’s no trouble,” Ianto replied with a wink. “I wanna see how his research is going.”

“What research?”

Ianto walked down the stairs into the autopsy room without another word.

“Ianto?”

Gwen followed him quickly. Owen looked away from the projection on the wall and turned to face them. The projection showed a sound wave and a few frozen images from the video of Beth attached to the mind probe, Ianto on his knees, eyes screwed shut in pain, with Jack beside him trying to keep him up.

Gwen dragged her eyes away from the projection and turned to look at the two men.

“How’s it going?” Ianto asked.

“I’ve got nothing?”

“Nothing? Really?”

“Not a thing.”

Ianto cursed and thumped his fist against the autopsy table.

“Hey, I know we were hoping for more but I’m not a miracle worker.”

“You’re trying to find out why that frequency affected Ianto like it did?” Gwen asked.

Owen nodded.

“So far, I’ve got fuck all. There’s only so much I can get from the recordings.”

“What else do you need?” Ianto asked, suddenly alert.

Owen half rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Not gonna happen. Ideally, I need heart rate readings, brain activity readings, blood pressure, that kind of thing.”

“We can do that.”

“No, we can’t.”

“You’ve got the frequency. Hook me up to everything you need and lets do this.”

“No.”

“Owen…”

“I said no, Ianto. I’m not putting you through that again.”

“No, you’re not. I’m asking you to do it, Owen.”

“It’s still no.”

“Owen, please.”

“No. I can’t, Ianto, ok. Not again.”

“I’m begging you. First this frequency and now another wolf. It’s just too many unanswered questions. Please. I just need to know. I need at least one question answered.”

Owen and Ianto stared at each other, Ianto pleadingly and Owen with a worried air of defiance.

Owen looked away first.

“Ok. But, only of Jack agrees.”

Ianto’s triumphant smile slipped a little.

“Give me five minutes,” he said confidently and walked away.

*~*~*~*

Ianto knocked on the door to Jack’s office and let himself in. Jack looked up from the file he was reading and smiled.

“Hey gorgeous.”

Ianto smiled.

“Hey yourself.”

“What’s up? Or did you just come to gaze on my delectableness.”

Ianto laughed.

“Or maybe, you just came for a kiss,” Jack continued, wiggling his eyebrows.

Ianto rounded Jack’s desk and leant down, pressing a gentle, loving kiss to Jack’s lips. Jack deepened the kiss and tried to pull Ianto into his lap, but Ianto pulled away with a smile.

“I did, in fact, come in here for a reason, you know. And it had absolutely nothing to do with your admittedly kissable lips.”

Jack pouted a little but his eyes were filled with laughter.

“Ok, what can I do for you Mr Jones?”

“I want to do some tests on the wolf.”

Jack frowned.

“I don’t follow.”

Ianto took a deep breath, steeling himself for what could become a rather heated debate.

“I need Owen to hook me up to some monitors and then reply the frequency that came from Beth.”

Jack was shaking his head but Ianto continued without giving him chance to speak.

“I need to know why the frequency had that effect on me. We’ve reached a dead end on finding out who the other wolf is and we might have to wait a whole month before it happens again. I need to at least be working on answering one question or I’m going to go mad, Jack. I just need to know why that happened to me.”

There was a silence following his speech and Jack looked quite sombre.

He nodded once.

“Ok.”

*~*~*~*

Ianto returned to the medbay exactly 4.58 minutes after he left and gave Owen and Gwen a terse nod.

“We have our permission.”

Owen visibly sagged.

*~*~*~*

Gwen wanted to help. That was fine with Owen but he was a little worried about how she was going to handle watching it all again. She hadn’t exactly coped well the last time and if she was going to get emotional, she was going to be no help at all.

But she was adamant she would be fine. At least, Ianto reasoned, it would keep her from guilt tripping herself over the mystery wolf. Owen had to agree.

Ianto sat himself on the autopsy table and let Owen fix him up to his machines.

Owen connected the leads from the cardiac monitor to Ianto’s chest before attaching the blood pressure monitor to his arm. He pulled out the EEG sensors and attached them to Ianto’s temples, placing the machine next to the heart monitor.

“We good to go?” Ianto asked.

They were but Owen just needed one more minute. He double checked everything was in order and ready to go. Then he treble checked.

A badly concealed huff from Ianto, forced Owen to admit he was playing for time. Part of him thought maybe, just maybe, if he hung on long enough, Jack or Ianto would change their mind and he wouldn’t have to do this.

But it wasn’t to be. He should have known. Ianto and Jack were as stubborn as each other most of the time.

“Ok. Lets get this over with,” he sighed.

He reached over and started the recording.

Ianto screamed.

*~*~*~*

Pained screams echoed throughout the Hub and Jack burrowed his head harder into his arms. He tried humming but nothing blocked out the agonising sound of Ianto in pain. He couldn’t get away from it and maybe part of him didn’t want to. But he felt like he should be doing something, it felt like he should be stopping Owen from harming Ianto but he couldn’t, he’d promised Ianto. Promised to help him answer one question and if this was what Ianto needed to do it, then Jack had to let him do it.

It was hard though. Deep down he knew it wasn’t his job to protect Ianto, not really. Ianto was strong enough to take care of himself, to take care of all of them, truth be told.

But Jack loved him. He loved Ianto more than he had ever thought possible and hearing him in such pain…

A small, soft hand on the back of his neck made him look up.

Tosh looked down at him, a soft, sympathetic smile on her lips and tears in her eyes. She moved her hand to his arm and Jack reached up to clasp it one of his own.

*~*~*~*

Ianto gasped a deep breath in and winced as pain thumped through his head. Owen closed his eyes briefly as Ianto spat out a gobbet of blood onto the floor. He moved away from the machines and looked at Gwen who held the controls for the recording  
, her finger trembling slightly over the pause button.

“We should stop,” Owen said.

Ianto shook his head.

“I have enough,” Owen argued but he couldn’t even convince himself and the look Ianto sent him, told him he certainly hadn’t convinced the Welshman.

Owen sighed and nodded at Gwen, who pressed play. The recording started up again, the frequency beating out into the room and Ianto whimpered, gasped, and then howled in pain. Blood started flowing from his nose and when he coughed during a gasping intake of breath, his lips were painted crimson.

Owen ignored it all as best he could, jotting down notes until finally, blissfully, they were done.

“Turn it off!” he yelled.

He turned back to Ianto, took in the blood, the shaking limbs, they way his eyes were rolled back into his head and once again felt that crushing guilt that filled him in times like this. This was his fault. The wolf was his fault.

And Owen would never forget it.

*~*~*~*

Gwen came running into Jack’s office. Her face crumpled a little at the way Jack and Tosh were clinging to each other.

“It’s over.”

The relief of all of them filled the air.

Jack stood, Tosh’s hand still clasped in his own, and led the way down to the autopsy bay.

“Is he ok?” he asked.

“He’s in a fair bit of pain, it took a lot out of him, but I think he’s ok. Owen’s checking him over now.”

When they reached the autopsy bay they stopped and looked down at the doctor and his patient.

“Ok, follow the pen.” Owen moved the pen slowly in front of Ianto’s eyes and nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Right. Let me just take some blood and then I need you to rest. I’m talking at least two hours of sleep.”

There was a tired humour in his voice at the short time frame he had given. Hopefully, after all he’d been though, Ianto would finally sleep.

Owen took the blood he needed and then looked up at the three almost entangled figures, singling out Jack and wordlessly telling him to get Ianto to a bed and make him stay there.

Jack broke away from the girls and hurried to Ianto’s side. When he saw his face he couldn’t help but gasp.

Ianto looked tired. More tired than he had looked since Jack got back. His skin was pale and clammy, his eyes bloodshot, framed by slowly forming black circles that seemed to darken as Jack watched. There was still blood on his face which he absent mindedly wiped at with the back of his hand, and he looked dazed.

“Come on, Yan.,” Jack said softly, putting an arm under Ianto’s and pulling him to his feet, wincing at the resulting groan of pain.

He half carried the limping form of his lover to his office and then eased him down into the bunker.

Slipping the t-shirt and jeans gently away, he pushed Ianto towards the bed, bringing the sheet up to his chest and watched, amazed, as Ianto drifted immediately off to sleep.

He held Ianto’s hand and watched and waited for the flickering of his eyes.


End file.
